Giaccherini’s injury will be assessed today, but last night boss Gus Poyet said he expects the midfielder to be out for a couple of weeks - which would rule him out of the trip to The Hawthorns a week tomorrow.

But, while Poyet was disappointed at the injury blow, he took it in his stride.

Poyet said: “Injuries are part of football.

“It’s not something to worry about. The timing of the injury is not nice for the player.

“But he’ll be back in a couple of weeks, so it’s not going to be tremendously bad for us.

“Let’s hope he recovers well and continues playing the way he’s been playing.

“Because I’ve been so happy that he has been playing every game, even in the middle of the park.

“He did very well in Portugal.

“He’s enthusiastic, playing, feeling important and sometimes you do a bit more and you over-stretch a bit.”

Steven Fletcher and Connor Wickham scored the goals against Real Betis, with both strikes coming in the final 10 minutes.

And those goals ended a lengthy drought for Sunderland’s first-teamers, whose only previous goals had come in their last friendly at Heritage Park against non-league Darlington 1883 on July 19.

However, Poyet insisted the lack of goals had not been a major concern to him.

He said: “It’s not really a relief!

“The two strikes last night had quality.

“Without scoring yesterday or tomorrow [in Sunderland’s final friendly against Udinese], then yes, I would have said: ‘what is going on?’.

“But I’m pleased for the strikers that they got the goals.”

Sunderland round off their pre-season campaign tomorrow against Italian Serie A side Udinese at Heritage Park.

And Poyet says USA international striker Jozy Altidore will be given his first pre-season outing, after recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered while at the World Cup finals in Brazil in June.

Poyet confirmed; “Jozy is back tomorrow and will play part of the game.”

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